Supermarket chain HyperCity has unveiled a brand new type of retail store in India – self check-out, cashier-less stores. These two stores are located in Infosys’ Hyderabad campuses. While the stores are not fully unmanned – some customer support and fulfilment staff are on the premises – customers are expected to check out themselves, shortening their shopping time since they don’t have to stand in queues to be billed.

Customers can scan barcodes on products as they shop, generate an invoice and pay, and leave.

The checkout process is automated via the Perpule 1Pay app. Customers can scan barcodes on products as they shop, generate an invoice and pay, and leave. Payment options include debit/credit cards, net banking, mobile wallets and even UPI.

Also, as of now, following payment one needs to take the items bought over to a weighing machine, which has a camera fixed to it to verify that the customer is only taking the items paid for. However, this works only if the number of items are five or less. For larger purchases, a staff member does a physical verification.

HyperCity has been trialing a self-checkout app for several months now in some of its stores in Indian cities.

The 3,000-square-foot cashier-less stores are about one-tenth the size of a typical HyperCity supermarket store. It mostly stocks groceries, apparel and convenience products.

Founder & CEO Perpule 1Pay, Abhinav Pathak, who developed the module after having to endure long queues at supermarts in India as well as abroad is now developing similar apps for other big Indian retailers.

Pathak writes in his blog: “We have expanded self checkout operations to top three cities in India (Bangalore, Mumbai & Noida) and are working closely with all top retailers in the country including Future Group, Aditya Birla Retail, ShoppersStop, SPAR, etc. Today we have close to 10,000 customers and have been getting an amazing 40 per cent repeat users on a daily basis.”

Earlier, US online giant Amazon also introduced cashless stores in Amazon’s hometown, Seattle. Customers use an app called ‘Go’ to enter the store. Then Amazon’s ‘Just Walk Out’ technology automatically detects when products are taken from or returned to the shelves and keeps track of them in a virtual cart.

When consumers are done shopping, they can just leave the store. Shortly after, the company will charge the consumer’s Amazon account and send them a receipt.

The app uses the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars: computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning. All one needs to use the store is an Amazon account, a supported smartphone, and the free Amazon Go app.